First Day

I haven't felt the "first day jitters" like this in a long time. Yesterday I was oriented, given so much information about life here in Edinburgh that I wanted to die. It was as if I had never gone to Bates, had never been to college, had never experienced anything like this, and was starting from scratch. Being a junior now, this is a very disconcerting feeling, something that I don't like at all. Then, to make it all worse, I discovered the reading list, and seeing readings assigned for today, started stressing out--per usual--and frantically skimming. I did this successfully, if you can name finishing "success" but the level of uncertainty and unadultered fear that I felt was something that was disconcerting beyond belief.

To make matters worse, the fire alarm went off at 1:30AM, just as I was about to fall asleep--making me get up and stand outside in the bitter cold for another half hour. Needless to say, this morning wasn't that fun, especially considering my feeble attempts to substitute black tea for coffee to save money--it will work, I'm sure, but the relative drop in caffeine is not something I'm really used to.

Lecture was good, though very different. Usually when studying philosophy I'm used to small classes--25 to 30--and an intimate discussion or debate about the reading. This class, however, is 300 strong, in a massive theater, with PowerPoint slides and a mic'd professor. While the professor's North Carolina accent was much easier to understand than most Scottish brogues, he moved at the speed of light, making it very hard to keep up in my notes. Yet, since lectures are only 50 minutes long, I was done before I knew it.

So on to the rest of my day--which includes registration, getting an ID card, a meeting with my Director of Studies (academic advisor), going to the gym, getting groceries, and other things, long before I think about turning to homework. If this was meant to be a vacation, I haven't found it yet--hopefully once I've been through everything once, I'll be able to relax and enjoy the ride.